lindseyn

Executive Summary
The goal of this project is to discover some of the different ways that teachers can both bore and stimulate interest using various teaching methods in the classroom. Students in the Edtec 670 class were assigned the task of completing a survey that questioned them about different learning situations in which they had been bored and those in which they had been engaged. The students then asked three other friends to complete the survey; in turn, this created a database of over two hundred survey responses that detailed dull and exciting learning experiences. Nearly sixty percent of the participants were women, and over half also had some college education.

What makes learning boring?
1. **A majority of the participants found that when the instructor only lectured during class, that class was considered to be very boring.** Considering that over half of the participants have had some type of college education, it is no surprise that so many found this type of lesson presentation dull. Ninety-two percent of participants noted that listening one was of the main activities required in the lessons that they found to be boring. Thus, it makes sense that some of the most dull lessons consisted of nothing but teacher lecture. One of the participants, Chili Pepper, recalled “sitting in my High School Literature class listening to a teacher mumble on about Julius Cesar.” Another participant, Japan Dale, noted that his teacher “sat at her desk and read from the book for a whole hour. We had to just sit and listen.” Co girl stated that the “lecture was monotone and just lectured.”

2. **Professors or teachers who speak in a monotone voice can make a subject seem duller than it actually is**. Craig Laig stated pretty directly that “the instructor was monotone and uninteresting.” Another participant, SDSU Jenn, reiterated the same sentiment when she wrote that the reason why the lesson was so boring was “mainly the teacher- just gave a monotone lecture.” Kaka also stated that “the teacher was monotone, not very engaging, there was no interaction with the teacher.”

3. **Not allowing students to voice their opinion or interact with each other makes learning the content boring**. You could feel the frustration voiced by many of the participants in the study as they wrote about teachers that did not allow them to participate in any type of discussion. Noting reasons why the learning situation was so boring, Kaybee commented on the “presentation style and the non-interactiveness.” Echoing these thoughts was El Cajon Ed, who wrote, “There was insufficient interaction between students, teacher, and material being taught.” RJH stated the same dissatisfaction simply, “No interaction. Problems were pre-created for us and we had to resolve them by recreating what the instructor had shown us.”

4. **Keeping a student in one place for extended amounts of time and not allowing him or her to move can make a boring lesson even worse**. You could almost see bobbing knees as you read statements voicing some sort of agitation about the fact that many professors or teachers would not let students move throughout the lesson. Carol wrote “Sitting still for soo long and the instructors monotone voice made it difficult to pay attention.” Hovi commented on the dullness of his class stating that the bulk of it was, “Sitting down, sitting still, and looking at the teacher.” There were a number of factors that contributed to the dull situation CJ had in her classroom, compounded by the fact that she had to “sit stillhard for meand the room was too cool (a/c too high) which made me want to get up and move.”

5. **Sometimes how the instructor carries themselves can be the sole cause of whether a class is considered exciting**. We have all had one or two teachers who probably have made you wonder why that person is still in teaching. These people express no enthusiasm for the subject at all, and their students can pick up on that. Craig Laig stated about his instructor, “The instructor was monotone and uninteresting.“ Della stated things a bit more bluntly about her instructor: “The instructor definitely played a HUGE part in making the overall experience boring.” White Mike pointed out something else poignant about instructor presence when he confirmed that “the instructor didn't command your attention.”

What makes learning fun?
1. **When students are given the opportunity to choose their own topic and method of presenting their findings, then lessons can be extremely stimulating**. Though this can be a hard option to present given the content instructors are required to teach, allowing students to have some choice in the lesson gives them a chance to participate and connect with the content. Kyle N recalled a time in an American Literature class when she was able to write a narrative about a piece of artwork. “We were allowed to pick the painting we wanted from a selection and we were allowed to work with a partner.” Carol noted with the same enthusiasm an instance in her sewing class in which “we got to pick out own patterns and materials and bring them to sewing class …”. And DG commented on the fact that in her class “we were asked to pick a historical event to research and discover what impact this event had on people at that time and in the future. We then had the choice of writing a formal essay on what we had learned or presenting our in formation to the class in some creative format, such as a song, movie, game, formal presentation, etc.”

2. **Introduce some type of artifact or specimen that is related to the material being taught into the lesson, and you can generate interest**. A number of participants commented on how they truly enjoyed getting to work with artifacts or specimens in the lessons that their teachers were presenting. LizzyR wrote about the fact that in her class “we watched a slide show and then talked about it with the teacher. We got to pet some animals.” Bob Ray talked about an experience in which he got to handle different objects that were used in the Civil War. “We worked in small teams and moved from one artifact table to another. We had to figure out what the artifact was, what it was used for, and why it was invented.” Once the groups completed this task, they then had to present their findings to the class. And Sopha wrote about a similar experience that related to science in which “we learned about mock rocks and rocks by actually interacting and touching the rocks.”

3. **If you can teach the lesson through a simulation, you can create an actual connection between the content and the student and increase the fun**. Lindz wrote about an experience in which “I was chosen to be Hillary Clinton, and I had to put together a speech based on research I had completed on her. During our history class, we then went to the gym, and performed this rally in costume. We even had secret service agents.” Craig Laig described another recreation in which “it was a simulated event -- a ship headed to SF during 1849. The instructors were in period dress and in character and the students (and teachers) were all treated as crew.” Students were then poised with the choice of staying on ship or leaving the boat to go to the gold mines. And Heather also explained a role play situation where “my fourth grade class spent months getting ready and learning about a character that we would act as at Sutter's Fort. We dressed up and had jobs, and had to stay in character while people visited the museum.” Students also got to spend the night at Sutter’s Fort for this experience.

4. **When the teacher interacts with students and has students interact amongst themselves, this can make the lesson much more fun**. How much more stimulating is a class when students are actually encouraged to ask questions and discuss content with others? Linda K noted that it was the “interaction with classmates and instructor” that made the class more exciting. Ronald Cook echoed that same feeling, stating what made the class fun was “interactivity with students, and a bit of fun tension from anticipating the evaluation of my work.” In addition, Kaybee wrote about this same interest in discussion when discussing one of his most fun classroom experiences. “It was interactive and the instructor presented the material more in the form of a dialogue than a formalized presentation.”

5. **Scheduling a fieldtrip into the curriculum if at all possible, can provide a memorable experience that can make students become more intrigued with the subject material**. Any time you can go somewhere to expose students to the content you want to teach them, it will heighten the experience for them and allow them to connect on a different level. Db wrote about an experience in which she was “taken to a french bakery to see/hear how pastries are made while translating and asking questions in french and (of course) eating!” When describing what made the lesson so much fun, she stated, “It was authentic learning, it is that simple.” Jolson described an experience in which she got to tour the Vatican with her art history teacher while he described various painting in it. “The combination of seeing the pieces in person and hearing the history behind them was the best way to learn I feel,” she wrote. Jordan T talked about an experience in which “We got to go into a hut and learn a lot of information about the Kumeyaay.” She said that what made the experience so much fun was that he actually got to go back in time and see how people lived.

Implications for your own teaching and design work.
This study actually reinforced what I already felt about teaching lessons, especially to middle school students. I truly feel that you need to break lessons up into chunks for these students since lectures can be a bit tedious to listen to at times. In fact, lectures can be tedious for people of all ages if different activities aren’t incorporated into them to increase brain activity in order to focus on content. Sitting for too long in any type of lesson can suck the life out of them. Also, it’s important to provide students with the chance to interact with each other. Learning is not a process in which information is just transferred into a receptacle. In a subject such as social studies, which I teach, it is critical to give students the opportunity to discuss the reasons why certain events played out the way they did.

I already try to do a number of things that participants stated help make lessons more interesting and fun. Students participate in a great number of simulations in my class, such as when I have them pretend they are residents of the city of Vicksburg that was under siege during the Civil War. I also allow for a great deal of interaction in my class. Constantly asking thought-provoking questions or generating a class discussion is a typical part of our class period.

However, there are two generalizations that I want to try working on to incorporate into my class. First of all, I would like to try and bring in more regalia. I myself had a history professor that would show pictures of different inventions, clothing that people used or wore during the time period we were studying. It helped me relate to what I was studying, and I believe if I tried that it would help my students as well. Another thing I would like to work on is providing my students with more choices to demonstrate how they know knowledge of a particular standard. I can give them better options such as allowing them to do an essay, film a video, or make a PowerPoint presentation. I feel that by using these other two techniques in class it will enhance my presentation and teaching style even more. .